Generally, the gravure offset printing needs a blanket to carry out fine-lining printing. The broader the effective printing area is, the larger the printing roller for the is blanket should be. For a line width below 3 μm, broad-area printing become more severe. One of the reasons is that, for a curvature limitation upon the blanket, while in processing broad-area offset printing, a contact area between the printing roller and the gravure module becomes almost a flat surface due to an excessive diameter of the printing roller. Thereupon, a corresponding dipping depth would be too small to pick up sufficient ink, and thus quality and yield of the offset printing would be significantly influenced.
Hence, large-scale metallic network touch-panel components with line widths lower than 3 μm are almost manufactured by yellow-light etching processes. Practically, a product with 30+ inches area manufactured by the gravure offset printing is never seen.
Accordingly, an improvement on the gravure offset printing for overcoming the aforesaid ink problem of a large printing roller in producing broad-area and fine-lining products is definitely urgent to the skilled person in the art.